thesadchicken

Fandom
/ˈfandəm/
noun

noun: fandom; plural noun: fandoms

1. the state or condition of being a fan of someone or something.
2. the fans of a particular person, team, fictional series, etc. regarded collectively as a community or subculture.

I’m not sure that I know when I discovered fandom. Ever since I started enjoying books, cartoons, movies or even just bedtime stories, I have been a “fan”: in the sense that I have been devoted to the books, the cartoons, the songs – the stories I was being told. And very quickly, I sought out other fans; other people who were just as devoted as I was.

•  My personal “history” with fandom:

I remember that at the age of 5, I was obsessed with Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (it’s still my favorite movie today). My best friend at the time, who was almost 7, loved it just as much as I did. We would sing the songs, talk about the movie, but soon that wasn’t enough. We wanted more, so we would draw the characters, or make little paper dolls representing them in different situations. Like many other 90s kids, we were also crazy about Disney’s The Lion King, and we liked to play “pretend” with the characters. We would each choose a character to portray (or invent new ones) and go on new adventures.

In other words, we told new stories based on the original work. This, I think, is the general idea of what we call fanfiction.

I continued to seek out fans after that – fans of High School Musical, of Winx Club, of Harry Potter. I continued to create things based on the books/movies/TV shows that I so admired. I drew my favourite characters, I wrote short stories about their pasts, I invented songs they might sing… But it wasn’t until I discovered the internet (and figured out how to use it!) that I became truly aware of fandom as a community.

I was 11 when I made my first blog, hosted on a French website called “skyrock”. It was very popular at the time (for French speakers, at least). I only made my own blog after hours and hours of scrolling through page after page of fan content. People were sharing their fan experiences, posting their drawings, commenting on each other’s stories. I saw them gushing over the same things I adored, and I wanted to be a part of that. So I made a blog. I posted and shared and commented and gushed. I made friends, and oh how it baffled me that this was easy, that being in the fandom almost meant being friends from the very start. This sense of community fascinated me.

My blog was about Michael Jackson (of whom I am forever an ardent admirer and huge fan). I kept that blog clean and polished, took extreme care of it; the layout, the colors, the content. I could spend an entire afternoon hunched over the computer, trying to figure out html tags and codes. I made a lot of friends. I started writing short texts, then short stories, then finally fanfiction. I became interested in graphic art, editing pictures and posting them, watching myself get better at it. People liked my fanwork, asked for more. I myself would fall in love with someone’s fanfiction, re-read it a dozen times and post a hundred comments.

I’m now 22 years old, and some of the friends I made during that time have stayed with me until today.

•  Fandom the way I experience it today:

Once I became aware of fandom – and once I discovered how and where to find it – it turned into my favorite hobby. Writing fanfiction, making edits, covering songs, drawing fanart… or simply discussing my interests with other fans. I’ve entered many fandoms, I’ve learned a lot of things, made a lot of friends. This has being going on ever since, and though it has taken different forms, I don’t think it will ever stop.

To me, today, fan culture in itself has become, well, a fandom. I know all the terms (OC, fanmix, PWP, ficlet, AU…). I recognize other fans when I see them. I know my references. I understand the struggles. I’ve seen the best and the worst (anyone remember the Mishapocalypse? Yikes).

But most of all, I’ve acquired a deep and personal understanding of what fandom truly means. Community, passion, kinship and creativity. 

Tell me about your fandom experiences, if you like. I'd love to hear about them.